What do you call

[glynndah]

One of those garden buildings in the grounds of flash castles and such?
It's bigger than a gazebo and enclosed.

I still want to know what a "flash castle" is. Does everyone wear trenchcoats?

 

[Boxlicker101]

I still want to know what a "flash castle" is. Does everyone wear trenchcoats?

I wasndering about that too, but I didn't ask.

 

[oggbashan]

I still want to know what a "flash castle" is. Does everyone wear trenchcoats?

A "flash castle" is one built for show, not for defence.

Nouveau riche Victorians built fake castles to show that they had arrived. The real nobility generally let their castles decay while they lived in something more comfortable.

Caernarvon Castle was perhaps the first example of a "flash castle". It was built almost as a stage set to overawe the Welsh. It didn't need five consecutive portcullises on the main entrance for military purposes but for a sense of drama.

Mereworth Castle in Kent is a castle in name only, really being a Palladian villa.

The owners of Scotney Castle in Kent used the original fortifications as part of a landscaped garden while living in a modern house nearby.

All English castles were obsolete when Henry VIII built his gun-forts such as Deal and Walmer, perversely named Castles when they are actually artillery strongpoints. Any "castle" privately owned and built after them is a "flash castle".

Bodiam Castle in East Sussex is probably the last privately-built "proper" Castle but even that one has "flash" elements to it to impress the neighbours rather than as effective defences.

Castel Coch is a "flash castle" built on genuine ancient foundations but the current structure is Victorian. Bamburgh Castle is another with genuine roots but over-restored to become something it never was.

Og

 

[starrkers]

Ah, the joy of someone who understands Aussie, but can give UK answers.

 

[Guest]

Actually, this is giving me an idea for a story... Colonel Mustard using his blunt instrument for a petit mort, in the conservatory. Only it was really Mrs. Peacock (formerly known as Hans Body before some estrogen, a boob job and snaring Mr Peacock).

Which reminded me of the priceless delivery of Maggie Smith in "Murder By Death." Upon hearing a whispered answer to her question (something like, "What use would anyone have for a dead body?"), she replies, with the most subtly intrigued expression on her face, "Oh, that's tacky. That's really tacky."

 

[3113]

No, pavilion. It sounds more separate - I tend to get the Clue type thought going with Conservatory too.

Pavilion:

http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2007/10/03/gazebo-pavilion_48.jpg

http://asi.nic.in/images/wh_redfort/hayat_001.jpg

And this is a conservatory:

http://z.about.com/d/golondon/1/0/d/A/-/-/Horniman_conservatory.jpg

The conservatory usually has glass panels and plants in it, like a greenhouse that also serves as a place for tea and reading romance novels. And getting killed with candlesticks.

 

[3113]

A "flash castle" is one built for show, not for defence.

Okay. Now tell us about "Folly" and "Temple of the Four Winds."

 

[oggbashan]

Okay. Now tell us about "Folly" and "Temple of the Four Winds."

A folly is a building for show, not use, to ornament a garden. It is intended to impress visitors. They were popular at the time of the gardener Capability Brown. Here is a UK site for them: Follies

For example one squire (Mad Jack Fuller) bet a neighbour that he could see the spire of the next village's church from his house. When he got home, he found that he couldn't. So he built a replica of the church's spire on the skyline he could see. He still paid his lost bet. Sham castles that are just a facade were also follies. A rich landowner on the Isle of Thanet in Kent believed that the Vikings had built castles there. He employed archaeologists to "prove" his theory. When they found no evidence he paid them off and then built his own "Viking castles". They convinced no one, especially as one was built to half-scale and was only suitable for his children. The real reason for his folly building was to provide paid work for agricultural workers during a recession.

A Temple of the Four Winds is one with openings on four sides to allow breezes to blow through on hot summer days. They were usually adorned with statues representing the various winds. Such a temple was an early form of air-conditioning. The most famous one is at Castle Howard Here

Og

 

[matriarch]

Thanks
I think pavilion is what I'm after...or is it conservatory?

No, pavilion. It sounds more separate - I tend to get the Clue type thought going with Conservatory too.

Do you mean a Folly?
Maybe a Lodge?
Gatehouse?
Stable?

OK, ignore me, I hadn't read down far enough, Og has the whole thing well in hand.